Characters: Leonia Tavira, Moff Thavil
Tavira, and an original Imperial male
Type: Drama in the Netherworld between
Canon and AU, or rather, "how can Sid flesh out an event that occurred
in professional fiction (the rise of Tavira is briefly mentioned in I,
Jedi) and in the X-Wing comics and add a little twist (Phogg) of her own?"
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Faced with the death of her husband,
a resourceful Leonia Tavira becomes the galaxy's youngest (female!) Moff.
Archive: Sith Chicks, Imperial Chicks
and Imperial Women
Disclaimer: All hail God-King Lucas and
his esteemed Vizier Michael Stackpole for letting me play with their toys-
the two Taviras and the entire Star Wars Universe. Phillonion Phogg belongs
to me, though the character's name, itself, is a "Sid-invented" derivation
from Phineas Fogg from Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days. (Just
to clarify, my Phogg is of a completely independent concept from the Verne
novel.)
Feedback: Go ahead and tell me you hate
it! *grin* I'm ready for it- Jedichick@mail.com
Dedication: To Gill and Blitzen, many
thanks for your betas! Blitzen, without your thought-provoking commentary
and line by line analysis, this wouldn't have been possible. Thank you
both for allowing me to have this idea go from a simple roleplaying scene
to "real" fan fiction. You guys are great!
Place: Eiattu, Residence of the Imperial
Moff Thavil Tavira.
Time: Several days after the destruction
of the second Death Star.
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Thavil
Tavira, middle-aged Moff of the planet of Eiattu, had been ill for quite
some time. Despite having suffered a stroke, he maintained enough control
of his wits to continue to preside over Eiattu from his bedchamber. There,
he was usually surrounded by physicians and bureaucrats, and attended by
his young wife, Leonia. But at times the Moff wanted to be left alone;
too much of the doctors' nagging and the delegates' squabbling only made
his illness worse. Of course the doctors wanted him to relinquish his rule,
prescribing rest, but the Moff would not have it; the Emperor had appointed
him as the overseer of wealthy Eiattu, not anyone else, as he would often
say. This hand-selection was something that Thavil had prided himself upon,
and as long as his stroke did not impede the sending of the tax money back
to Imperial Center, the Emperor did not protest.
But
little had been heard from Coruscant lately. It was almost strangely quiet.
Thavil, himself, didn't seem to notice the stagnance in the communication
channels; he had enough to worry about with his health. But Leonia did.
Leonia was a sharp girl for one who was not yet past her late teens. She
had been born into a poor family, a native of the world that Thavil presided
over, and hers was the classic rags to riches story, although there was
no love between herself and her Imperial Prince Charming. Thavil Tavira
was merely the key to wealth and the chance to live a life that the impoverished
Leonia could have only dreamed about. But Leonia wasn't the average gold-digger
either; even after her husband took ill, she did not betray him in order
to advance her own position. If it was not love, then it was greed that
kept Leonia at Thavil's side; as long as he lived, she would benefit from
his own cutbacks from the Imperial piggy bank. Leonia served herself first
and everyone and everything else second.
Several
days ago, Leonia's little dream world would have come to a crashing halt
if Coruscant's news had been received. (Indeed, the holonet connection
to Eiattu had been cut and was only now just being restored.) Several days
ago, the Rebellion did the unthinkable- they had obliterated the second
Death Star above the forested moon of Endor, taking Emperor Palpatine with
it as it went supernova. (Though, it could be argued that Palpatine was
already dead before the explosion, at the hands of his servant Darth Vader.)
Only
now did the news reach Eiattu- a lone Imperial Lambda-class shuttle, much
like the Tyderium that the Rebels had procured for their own use when they
raided the Death Star's shield generator on Endor, now rested on the landing
pad adjacent to the Moff's palatial residence. A single officer, a captain,
it appeared by the very number of pips on his rank badge, disembarked and
asked to be taken directly to the Moff. Since Thavil was unable to leave
his bed, Leonia had chosen to meet the captain, a man in his mid-thirties
by name of Phillonion Phogg, and escorted him to the Moff's chambers.
Thavil
insisted that Leonia leave them. Although she resented being driven from
the room now, after having been privy to many other state matters before.
But Leonia did not go far. She remained in the hallway outside the sealed
chamber, pressing her ear against the door, eager to catch even a bit of
the exchange between the two men. The conversation was muffled through
the doors and to Leonia's displeasure, there was little that she could
overhear. This had to be important, she thought, if Phogg had come all
the way to deliver the message in person. Just as she was about to pull
away from the door, Leonia heard two sounds that were very unmistakable-
a very male-sounding shout and then blaster bolts.
"Thavil!"
She cried, pounding her fists against the control panel that would open
the doors. Just as the panel was about to short-circuit, the doors parted
and Leonia came face to face with Phogg. The Imperial captain wore a grave
expression and stepped aside to reveal the fallen body of Thavil Tavira,
the deceased's hand still clutching the blaster he had wrested from Phogg,
the blood seeping from his skull and staining his bedclothes and sheets
a violent scarlet. Suicide. Suicide!
Leonia's wide brown eyes were dry. She
didn't love Thavil, and although she hadn't wished him dead, there was
no point in mourning him. Instead, she stoically looked up at Phogg and
asked, "What did you tell my husband that provoked him to take his own
life?"
Phogg
seemed slightly surprised that her tone was neither accusatory nor hysterical
and answered, "Emperor Palpatine is dead. He was on the Death Star when
the Rebels destroyed it." Phogg, too, had had a hard time believing that
the Empire had been defeated by a handful of Mon Calamari Cruisers, a few
squadrons of snub fighters and a rickety old Corellian freighter. The Executor
alone could have, should have been able to handle them. Instead, that,
too was crippled and vanquished by the Rebel underdogs. If Phogg had not
been there, had not been a part of the fleet that managed to flee to hyperspace,
he would have demanded proof.
Leonia
turned away from Phogg and approached the body of the deceased Moff. She
stared at the corpse, studying her husband's horrific expression as he
passed beyond the realm of life. And yet, her eyes still bore no tears.
She took the blaster from his limp hand and wiped the blood from it with
the edge of sheet. Phogg shot her a puzzled look and then began to approach
her, thinking that perhaps she, too, would try to kill herself. "No!" He
shouted as Leonia examined the weapon, lunging towards her in the hopes
of knocking the blaster out of her hands. But Leonia had ideas of her own
and as the Captain fell upon her, she pulled the trigger, the barrel of
gun pointed at him, rather than herself. Phogg was hit with a bolt of electrified
raw energy and cried out in pain. The wound, on his right shoulder blade,
was not fatal. If Phogg died, it would be from infection and not from the
wound itself.
Leonia
shoved Phogg aside as he tried to bandage his wound. Phogg looked up at
her for a moment, dumbfounded that she had even done such a thing. "Sithspit!
What the hell is wrong with you, woman?" He bellowed, losing almost all
sense of his genteel officer's demeanor from the sheer pain that flooded
him.
But
Leonia, still armed with the blaster, had already pulled open her departed
husband's closet and took down his olive green-gray uniform. Her fingers
nimbly removed the rank badge and the cylinders from it and proudly held
them aloft in her spare hand as if they possessed some kind of ethereal
power. Her brown eyes gleamed, knowing that she now had an even greater
chance at making something of herself than she did when old Thavil had
taken her as his wife.
Phogg
groaned, his still hand pressed against his shoulder as the blood began
to show through his own uniform.
"You're
not going back to Imperial Center, Captain," said Leonia, still fascinated
with the hallmarks of the Moff's office. "Not yet at least. But you will
inform whomever is in charge that you will be assisting Moff Tavira in
suppressing any actions by Rebel sympathizers here on Eiattu."
"Foolish
girl, Tavira's dead!" He proclaimed, looking at Leonia as if she had lost
her mind, then, slowly he realized what she intended, now wondering why
he hadn't seen it sooner, especially with her little power play for the
rank badges.
"She's
far from it." Leonia replied with a smirk, twirling the blaster. "If you
value your life and the fate of the Empire, you'll do as I say."
Phogg
begrudgingly nodded his head. He didn't like this business of a woman in
charge but there was little that he could do about it, especially when
she still held his weapon. But then, orders were orders and he was trained
to obey. One day, though, she would get hers, Phogg thought, his teeth
clenched. Women, authority, and politics was not a good mix. Not by a long
shot. It was only circumstance that had elevated Leonia Tavira to the most
powerful Imperial political appointment in this part of the galaxy. This
was a man's job and should rightfully be performed by a man as the Emperor
intended, not by some second-class female interloper. Circumstance, chance,
fortune, luck, whatever the hell you wanted to call it, had chosen to smile
upon this woman. Why? Phogg could not understand why he had been screwed
over when he had only done his best to serve the Empire. This woman, no,
this ill-behaved child - hardly deserved such a reward.
Phogg,
himself, didn't want to be Moff; he was more the military man. Indeed,
Captain Phillonion Phogg had been stripped of his command of a Victory-Class
Star Destroyer for losing all of his starfighter squadrons to the Rebels
at Endor. The Empire did not tolerate failure and Phogg had been reduced
to being a "captain" in name only, a glorified messenger-boy bearing the
news of Palpatine's death to Eiattu because no one else wanted the task.
But like Leonia, Phogg was an opportunist and would turn Hutt shit into
glitterstim. He would keep his eye on Leonia, watching and waiting for
her to make a blunder that he would surely use as his trump card. Yes,
he would go along with this game for now, since he honestly thought that
when the news of this woman's assumption of her husband's title got out,
the other Moffs would demand that she step down. But if Phogg had a hand
in the ousting of Leonia, perhaps that would speed him back to his naval
appointment? It was a chance that Phogg was eager to take.
Satisfied
with the captain's response, Leonia wiped her fingerprints from the blaster
and replaced it in her dead husband's hand. She then summoned the physicians,
using the story that Thavil Tavira had shot Phogg prior to killing himself.
Phogg knew not to dispute the tale, else the self-declared Moff would see
to it that his wound festered. But, for now, Leonia Tavira would be the
youngest Moff in all of the Galactic Empire.
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